Originally published at: http://boingboing.net/2016/10/26/the-13-best-japanese-horror-mo.html
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No original Gojira?
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If you have not seen Hausu go out now and rent it. This movies is in my top for most fun to watch. It is both wonderfully creepy and hilarious at the same time.
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Early, experimental films from Nobuhiko Obayashi, the director of Hausu.
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So, I guess the Uzumaki movie is skippable? Someone mentioned Uzumaki the other day in the comments for that Junji Ito anthology, but I can hardly suppose that being based on a manga is any kind of guarantee of quality. (I hear Drifting Classroom (Hyôryu kyôshitsu) is singularly dreadful.)
It seems Ito’s work is circulating sufficiently that we can surely expect more soulless (eheh) adaptations of his work in the future.
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It’s more of a zombie film than a horror one, but I’m going to recommend Versus anyway.
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Noroi is awesome, so glad to see it get attention. A lot of the creepier Japanese horror pieces I have seen were shorts included in collections, like Tales of Terror from Tokyo. Fun teen stuff, but often very creepy.
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Aren’t kaiju films kind of in their own category?
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Some would argue thus, but I think the original Godzilla, much like the original King Kong, can pass muster as a horror film. Most people may not find it scary anymore, but the same can be said for a lot of older works.
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What @ChuckV said. Gojira (not the U.S. re edit with Raymond Burr edited into it) plays a lot more like a horror film and there are some truly wrenching scenes in it.
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Once during a rare alignment of the planets, I won Control for Movie Night. Wife and I watched Hausu. SO good. For me. It cost me Control for months, and whenever I get it back, Wife still says, “Wait, is this one of your carnivorous piano movies?”
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True. The original is much darker and is wrenching. Most people think of the less serious sequels that we kind of mock a bit (with a heart full of love, of course - except for that one American one with Matthew Broderick… we hates that one). How was the film classified/understood when it came out originally?
But I think over the years, these films have evolved into a genre of their own with some very different sensibilities. But I can maybe see the first being included in a list of Japanese horror films.
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I liked that one but with the reservation that IT IS NOT A GODZILLA MOVIE. It is a fun monster movie and Jean Reno nearly steals the film.
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Funny story about Audition. I first watched it with my wife (she was my girlfriend at the time). She kinda sympathized with Asami (the psycho character). While I was half asleep she tried to re-enact one of the scenes in the movie using my foot and a string. (People who have seen the film know the scene I am talking about). Freaked me right out into being wide awake.
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And you still married her? You are a braver man than I am Gunga Din.
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Onibaba is creepy as fuck. +1
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Aaaaaggghhhh, that was the part where I nearly hurled 
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Just finished watching House. Well… that was fucking trippy.
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Was it Lupus?
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I’ve loved all the Junji Ito manga I’ve been able to read, especially Uzumaki. I thought the movie was a pretty good adaptation. Of course, it doesn’t include all the material from the three-volume series, but it does feature some of the more notable scenes. It’s a slow, spooky build from start to finish; and since it was filmed before the end of the manga was published, it ends in a different place. I liked it, but I think I prefer the manga.
@daneel: thank you for the Versus recommendation! I’ve got it sitting in the to-be-watched pile of DVDs at home. Sounds like I want to see it sooner. 
@TobinL: that’s how I made peace with that movie, finally. As long as I didn’t factor it in to Godzilla continuity, it could be a goofy, guilty-pleasure movie I could enjoy. I mean, even the Godzilla-babies knew it was a popcorn flick, right?
And then Zilla got featured in Final Wars and it’s definitively in continuity again. 
Zilla (Godzilla) - Wikipedia
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